The BATFE has proposed the reclassification of rifle ammunition that can be shot out of guns like the Thompson-Center Contender and regulate it like pistol ammunition.  What that means to us is that rifle ammunition that they would consider “armor piercing” would become more tightly regulated, which is my euphemism for “impossible to get”.  This would include the inexpensive surplus and Eastern European ammunition we use for plinking.  It will also restrict full metal jacket rifle ammunition, which is the bread and butter of anyone who enjoys precision shooting.

Please reach out to the BATFE and tell them that you disagree with these proposed regulations.  Be respectful, but be firm.  If we’re going to fight gun control in the legislature and the courts, we have to fight unreasonable regulation of the ammunition for those guns.

Addition – I forgot to mention that the window for comments closes on December 31, so if you’re going to do this, get to it.  No time for procrastination on this one.

Update – Fixed the link to the BATFE’s email.

Alternate Title – “Oh look, some actual gun content!”

After dinner tonight, Girlie Bear and I headed off to my indoor range to check zero on my hunting rifles and to put a few holes in some paper.  It’s awful nice to have access to an indoor range with a 100 yard rifle area so close to home.

First, I checked my black powder rifle.  I use a Thompson Center Omega, with a Redhead 3-9 shotgun scope on it, loaded with a 295 grain Powerbelt Aerotip over two 50 grain pellets of 777 powder.  I zero for 25 yards, and hold over for longer shots.  Remember, I’m hunting in north-central Kentucky, not North Dakota.  A 50 yard shot is rare in the woods around here.  After my first shot at 25 yards was on target, I decided to play a bit and see how much bullet drop I got at 75 and 100 yards.

Both shots were aimed at center mass.  As you can see, with that zero and that load, 75 yards is pretty much the most I can shoot without holding over and still be in the vitals zone of a deer.  At 75 yards, I got 3 to 4 inches of drop.  I also took a 100 yard shot, but that one fell completely below the target, so it dropped at least an additional 6 inches.  If I held over to the very top of the target, I would get it into the vitals zone at 100 yards. In other words, for up to 25 yards, I will aim for the bottom of the deer.  At 25 to 75 yards, I will aim center mass.  For further than 75 yards, I will aim at the top of the shoulder blades in order to get a hit in the vitals.  With that load in that gun, I won’t take a shot more than 100 yards out.  I’m pretty sure that if I practiced enough, I could make the shot, but right now I don’t think I could make an ethical shot on a deer at more than 100 yards.

Girlie Bear then took out the 10/22 and wore out my target.

We had to adjust her front sight a bit to bring her shot group down, but once she was on, she was on.  She then got off the bench and practiced shooting standing up because that’s what she believes is her weakest area.  She has really improved in her fundamentals since she started on the rifle team at her school.

I then chased a zero on my bolt-action deer rifle, a Savage Model 110 in .270.  I’m glad I checked my zero on this one.  Unlike the muzzleloader, this one wasn’t even close.  After my first three shots resulted in an untouched target, I broke out the boresighter to see where my point of aim compared to my point of impact.

I wasn’t even close.  I had to lift the crosshairs a good foot over the target at 100 yards to get the dot from the boresighter onto the bullseye.  My scope must have gotten knocked around in the safe.  I eventually brought it down and got a good zero at 100 yards, but I’m not at all proud of the string of 3 round groups that led to it, so no picture.

Next came the new AR-15.  I finished putting the lower together Saturday night in anticipation of going out to Knob Creek on Sunday afternoon.  Unfortunately the wind and the Irish Woman changed my mind about trying to zero a rifle on Sunday, so it came out tonight.  I zeroed it the same way I did in the Army at 25 yards, then pushed the target out to 50 and 100 yards.  I’m proud to say that I got my zero in 9 rounds, which is about what I used to do in the military. (Hey, small victories are still victories).

Yeah, I’m not particularly proud of that.  The shots above the target are at the 50 yard mark, but after looking at them, I changed point of aim to lower on the target and they came back on.  The string inside the inner ring are from the 100 yard shots, also aimed at the 6 o’clock position.  I need a lot of practice.  I have shot an AR exactly twice in the last 14 years, but with practice I think I can get back to the skill level I had when I was shooting expert.  I just have to work on it and remember the pattern that a 5.56 takes in flight.

I swear, a better picture is forthcoming

Yeah, I geeked out a little when I asked Wally and company to make this for me.

The AR is a 5.56/.223 lower from York Arms, with a lower parts kit from Palmetto State Armory.  The rear sight is a Magpul MBUS that folds down and comes up on a spring with the push of a couple of tabs.  The upper is a CMMG 16 inch setup with Magpul MOE handguards.  I am still working on building my own upper, but cost and availability of parts convinced me that it made sense to invest in the carbine length upper now.  I was going to get one anyway, so when I saw a good deal on this one, I got it.  One of the reasons I wanted an AR was for use as a trainer for Girlie Bear if she decides to join the military, and using a carbine length upper that approximates an M-4 makes sense.

The build was pretty straight forward.  I found a really good how-to at ar15.com, and I supplemented that with a few YouTube videos.  The trickiest part of the build was the trigger, but once I figured out how it all fits together, it’s not that challenging.

One thing about shooting a brand new rifle that surprised me is how tight this thing is compared to the M-16’s that I shot when I was in the military.  Even the brand new rifle I was issued to take to Bosnia wasn’t as tight as this thing.  However, with a good coat of RemOil, everything ran very smoothly.  At first the trigger felt rather grainy, but after putting 40 rounds through it, it got a lot cleaner and crisper.  It’s not as nice as the trigger on my Savage or the Timney I put in the Mosin Nagant, but it’s not bad.  It broke at 7.5 pounds, and after I put a few hundred more bullets into her, I’ll measure again.

So it was a really good night.  Girlie Bear’s shooting has significantly improved.  I have a good zero on both of my hunting rifles.  And I have a zero on my new AR-15 and a new goal to achieve with it.  Now I just need a whole bunch of ammunition to practice with.

Yesterday, when I was bloviating about how all gun owners should have a lawyer who is knowledgeable about gun and self-defense laws, Freiheit called my bluff and asked where one would find such a creature.  To be honest, I didn’t have a good answer off the top of my head, but like anyone who has ever stood in front of a Soldier of the Month board, I punted:  “Sergeant Major, I do not know the answer to that question, but I will look it up and get the answer to you.”.

I reached out to the Second Amendment Foundation and the NRA, and got a quick response from them.

The SAF maintains a lawyer referral service.  According to the SAF person who spoke with me, they can’t promise a team of angry lawyers being readily available everywhere, but they have a lawyer or two on their list in each of the 50 states.  The number to call to speak to someone about a lawyer is 425-454-7012.

The NRA also maintains a couple of numbers that members can call for referral to an attorney.  The first one is their general membership number, which is 800-672-3888.  The other number is to their NRA-ILA Grassroots office at 800-392-8683.  NRA also offers  personal liability insurance to its members to help with the cost of attorneys and any settlements/judgements that arise from a self-defense incident.

As reader Jake pointed out in comments, the United States Concealed Carry Association also maintains a list of lawyers for their members and offers insurance for self-defense related legal costs.  I need to join USCCA for a lot of reasons, but checking that out is one of them.

That’s what I’ve been able to dig up in the past day or so.  There are probably more resources out there, but sorting the wheat from the chaff on the Internet will drive a person mad.  A quick Google search for “Louisville firearm attorney” turned up a lot of lawyers who will take cases for people who violate firearms laws, but none that I could easily tell are experienced in personal liability cases dealing with firearms.   Like Freiheit said in his comment, going to the phone book isn’t the best thing to do, even with all of the information that readily available on the web.

Reader John made a point that some homeowners policies may provide coverage in the event of a self-defense related lawsuit.  I need to get mine out and give it a good, thorough reading, and I should give a call to my agent.  It may well be that the liability portion of my policy covers me, at least to some extent, when I get sued for shooting a goblin.  Freiheit made another excellent point that having a lawyer that works directly for you, in addition to any attorney that the insurance company may hire to represent both your and their interests in a lawsuit, is probably a good idea.  If you get a lawyer who’s got experience in cases that deal with firearms and self-defense, they can be a great addition to your legal team.

What this all brings home is, like I said, we should all do our homework before we need an attorney.  Learn the laws related to firearms and self-defense in your area, including where and how you can carry concealed, what is considered by a prosecutor when deciding whether or not to bring charges, about what the laws about civil litigation and liability are like in your state.  At least get the name of an attorney that knows their way around the civil and criminal systems when it pertains to self-defense gun use, contact them to establish a relationship, and have their contact information handy in the event that the world falls in on you.

Hope all this helps. Thanks to everyone who gave such great input in comments and pointed me in the right direction to find all this out.

A 90-year-old man in California is being sued by the meth addict who broke into his home, tied him up, shot him, and held a gun to his head.  The homeowner is being sued because in the middle of all that, he managed to get loose, get a gun, and when his attacker shot at him, he shot back.  Both were hit, and in the ensuing physical struggle, the burglar got the homeowner’s gun away from him.  He held it to the 90-year-old man’s head, and only didn’t shoot him because the gun was empty. 

Now, the meth-head, burglar, attempted murderer is suing the homeowner.  Apparently when a 90-year-old man defends his life, he causes “great bodily injury, and other financial damage, including loss of Mr. Cutrufelli’s home, and also the dissolution of Mr. Cutrufelli’s marriage,”.

I don’t know about y’all, but let’s say that I lose my inhibitions against using drugs, breaking into nonagenarians’ homes, tieing them up, shooting them, physically attacking them, and then holding what I believe to be a loaded gun to their heads and pulling the trigger.  Hey, we all have our off days, so I’ll put this in the “Not likely, but at least remotely possible” category.  So, assuming that all of my societal norms that pertain to how I treat people two to three times my age and not breaking into people’s homes and stealing their belongings were suddenly gone, would I, after sobering up and having some time chained to a hospital bed to think about it, have the chutzpah to sue the guy I tried to kill?  I can say, with a small amount of pride, that after my life fell apart because of my actions and having a good think about what I did, that I would be so ashamed of myself that the thought of forcing a 90-year-old man to lawyer up would be unthinkable.

Of course, I was raised right.  Well, at least the attempt was made.  Let’s be honest here:  If I was to ever even consider doing what this schlemeel did, my grandmother would rise from her grave, hunt me down, and beat me within an inch of my life.  Exactly how screwed up do you have to be, both as the guy who did it and as the lawyer who filed the papers, to sue the guy who shot you back in his own home?

I’ve heard it from multiple sources, and this case should make it stick:  Get a lawyer who knows gun laws today.  You also ought to consider getting insurance against criminal and civil litigation for a defensive gun use too, because I’d be willing to bet that your homeowner’s insurance doesn’t cover harm you did to someone willingly, whether or not that harm was done to defend you and yours.  Right now is the time to think about all these things, not when you’re either in jail or the hospital because some goblin decided that what is yours should be his.  Now is also the time to get laws passed that protect us from civil and criminal litigation for justifiably using violence to defend our lives and property, but that is something that you can’t do for yourself today.

I wish Mr. Leone luck and success in his countersuit.  This one seems like a slam dunk, but you never know.  The lesson I get from this is to sue the goblin before he can sue you.

Update – I have messages in with the NRA and SAF to see if they maintain any kind of database on 2A-friendly lawyers.  I’ll post any information I can find.

Also, it looks like The Scratching  Post beat me to the punch on this one.

A friend of mine learned some new rules while at the range the other day:

1. Do not let yourself get distracted while at the range
2. Do not let “Range Brass” or “Found Ammo” get mixed up with the stuff you brought with you.
3. Do not put 9mm into a .40 firearm.

Failure to follow these rules can lead to bad things happening, such as this:

Sorry about the cell phone picture, but I think it’s quite evident that something happened that shouldn’t have.

My friend recently took his new KelTec Sub2000 in .40 out to the range.  His wife and he like to shoot, and they reload.  His wife was picking up the fired 9mm brass that was scattered around their firing position from a previous shooter, and she found an unfired 9mm round.  She placed it on their table, and it just so happened that it ended up next to some of their .40 ammunition.

Now, my friend is not new to shooting, and is a very conscientious kind of guy.  But apparently a moment of paying attention to the guy next to them, who was shooting a .50 BMG rifle, led him to make a mistake.  He was refilling a magazine for the KelTec, and that stray 9mm got mixed up with the .40.  The magazine started out with a .40, then the 9mm, then filled with .40.

My friend put the magazine in the gun, put a bullet in the chamber, and proceeded to fire away.  He says he noticed that one of the rounds felt weird, and the action didn’t cycle properly.  He worked the action, ejecting the brass, which fell to the ground.  He didn’t notice anything weird other than that.  He continued to shoot, and reports that there were no issues.

It wasn’t until he was cleaning up his area before he went home that he figured out what had happened when he couldn’t find that loose 9mm.  As he was sorting through the brass from the trip, he found the casing in the picture above, and the full story of what had happened came to light.

He inspected the gun when he cleaned it, and found no evident damage.  The chamber looked OK, as did the bore.   He’s going to take it to a gunsmith before he shoots it again.

To me, this is analogous to the admonition that we got during hunter’s safety training to not carry both 20 gauge and 12 gauge ammunition while you’re hunting.  The smaller round was capable of being loaded into the larger magazine and chambered in the gun.  Apparently it was even capable of being fired in the larger chamber, and luckily for my friend, it exited the muzzle without causing a catastrophic failure.  At first glance, it appears that the only damage was inflicted upon the case.  My friend got very lucky.

The thing is, I can visualize myself doing the same thing.  When I go to the range, I have guns of different calibers on the table all the time.  If I didn’t pay attention, how hard would it be for me to mistakenly put the wrong bullet in a gun and try to fire it?  It’s a reminder that we have to pay attention at all times when we’re enjoying our sport.